Solar vs Generator

Have any of you guys read the department of energy website and their tax rebates ?

Was going to do a generac install as my wife is working from home permanently but starting to think mathematically that is not smart.

I already have 2 gas powered generators at work and a 30amp backfeed hooked up in the garage.

My gas line isn't large enough at the house and its 5k just to bring the new service in from the street.

If I go solar my main question is ice, snow, and hail damage. I don't know anyone with these large systems yet.

Ideally I wanted a couple wind turbines as my island gets a fuckton of wind but our township building ordinances with wind turbines are cost prohibitive. You gotta have sound engineers sign off and all kinds of shit.

 

There's a LiFePo4 company out there doing 11yr warranties on batteries also

 

Look into diesel or propane. Given the minimal use it’s likely to get, the infrastructure expense for the upgraded gas line will likely dwarf the costs for a 250 gallon or paired 120 gallon propane tanks.

And diesel just because fuck the greenies.

 

I have solar, wind and generators that I installed myself, my solar has battery backup, not as efficient but allows for grid disconnect and off grid power when the lines go down, you usually don't see these that much
Are you looking for a grid tie only system? My in laws have a 22kW solar GT system with micro-inverters on each panel, converts DC to AC in a few feet, the only drawback is the UL requirement that the inverters shut off if the grid goes down so you aren't zapping the lineman
Both my inlaws and I live relatively close, our area averages 120" of snow a year, I haven't had any snow, ice or hail damage. I have needed to pull several feet of snow off the panels so they start producing again, maybe once or twice every couple years, most of the item the black panel gets exposed to the sun and the heat generated by the panel absorbing the sun melts it off. My roof is a 5/12 pitch, my in laws is 12/12
Most home systems are around 10kW of solar panels, depends on available roof to mount them. If you're grid tie only there's no real advantage to over sizing the system as the utility only pays the generation cost back if you're in a surplus not both generation and distribution

 

For solar can you do a ground mount system? That would help alleviate the show issue..you can easily brush it off. But they also make long reach tools to do the same. Also ground mount means you can make it adjustable in tilt to optimize summer and winter.

Or go diesel/propane and be done with it.

 

Live on the water, don't have the space for ground mount.

Cant have propane tanks here, all nat gas

I have 2 good size gasoline portables at work so I don't need a generator per say.

This is more to keep the house running for wifey than anything

After seeing all the tax rebates from the Feds solar starts making way more sense

 

Can you school me on your batteries and inverters

 

You can do an inverter and batteries. Batteries charge off the grid and step in when power goes out. Charge off of generator if power is still out when battery gets low. Add solar if/when rules change.

 

I would have already installed sun tracking solar ground mount if it weren't for the fact that this monstrosity of a highway is going to be built 400foot from the master bedroom in the quiet, country house I bought.

The day it opens for traffic this house is going on the market. Unless Home Depot comes & offers me eleventy million an acre for my 5 acres before then.




It could be worse, though... this house is my neighbor who has lived out here for 30 years. Notice how her house isn't "pinkxxx'd" out like the 2 structures to the west? That's because TXDOT doesn't plan to eminent domain her house, just all the way up to the edge of her pool. Funk that.

 

So if power is down is the connectivity also down? If so it would be about light and comfort right? Changes the sizing I would think.

 

I think there's automated switching where you'd go to strictly battery power reliant on the solar as grid line fails.

What I'm thinking is take the tax rebates now, save on electric each month, and wife isn't having problems during an outage

Seems like win win.

If shit goes south for multiple days I bring gasoline powered portables home from work

 

Look into the useful life span of your roof, as well as your panels. Consider the work and cost involved in removing the solar from your roof to have a new roof put on your house.

Consider the cost of disposal of the panels when they need replacing. Is there any place near you that will take them?

Consider where the trace elements/minerals come from in those panels and who in that country is mining them. Is it children?

Just a few thoughts on "Green".

https://forums.13x.com/index.php?threads/official-youtube-video-thread.215117/page-1062#post-6057802

 

The inverter is an Outback GTFX3524, handles 3500 watts with 24 VDC input, in retrospect I would have done a 48 volt inverter but there were some reasons at the time why I did the 24 volt unit. The inverter is 120volt, I wired a subpanel (lower right in the one pic) with essential circuits like lights, refrigerator, freezer, etc so when the grid power goes out the inverter switches to battery in 16 milliseconds, the lights don't even flicker when it happens. For bigger solar arrays you can add inverters as necessary and also stack them to get 240volts, depends on what you are trying to achieve.
The batteries are Outback 106RE 12 volts 100ah deep cycles wired in series to 24 volts and wired 6 sets in parallel, between the solar array and batteries are 2 charge controllers to regulate battery charging. My setup had one upgrade where I added more panels at one point and had to add the second charge controller due to capacity limits. I could probably run the house for 2 days without grid power and sunlight if I was careful.

 

Are those lithium iron phosphate batteries or just standard deep cycle ?

I assume you can just add more/store more correct ?

What are the benefits for voltage differences as you move away from 12v ?

 

Standard deep cycle
Yes, you can add as you need, ideally you'd do a load calc and figure out how many you'd need and add some buffer for line loss.
Efficiency is the reason to go to higher voltage, right now I'm taking about ~120 volts DC from the solar array, DC-DC converting to 24volts DC to the batteries and then inverting 24 volts DC from the battery bank to 120 volts AC to the house loads and/or grid, there's losses in doing the conversions, how much I don't know exactly but if I had a 48vdc inverter it would make the conversions more efficient and possibly reduce wire sizes although the 4/0 I got was free as I knew someone with some cut offs from a commercial job. Sorry for the run on sentence : )

 

Ahhh... I too am 'enjoying my place in the country' becoming swallowed up by the nearby metro area.
Not sure where I'll move to, yet.

Sucks when you see the DOT only condemn the small portion of one's land to build a new road never imagined years earlier.

 

Link to a baller off grid 240V battery system.

 

My grandmother's house is where I-696 is

I cant remember what the Feds paid her

 

Buy a 2023 Chevy Bolt EV. 65 kWh of storage; $7500 fed tax credit. About $25K OTD after credit.

Buy an adapter you can purchase for < $200 that can supply 120VAC to your home, granted, at a limited load level. I'm sure someone will create an adapter that will handle a larger load soon.

You will have energy storage cheaper than a Tesla Powerwall (on a per kWh basis), and a car that can get you around town.

 

Just what I was looking for

No power, and I cant drive anywhere.